White House Report Lauds Immigrants’ Positive Effects

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/washington/20immig.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

June 20, 2007
White House Report Lauds Immigrants’ Positive Effects
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, June 19 — Hoping to influence Congressional debate, the White House issued a report on Tuesday saying, “Immigration has a positive effect on the American economy as a whole and on the income of native-born American workers.”

But it acknowledged that some research had found “small negative effects” on the wages of the least-skilled American workers.

The report, prepared by the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, says immigrants enhance the productivity of native-born workers and increase their earnings a significant amount, estimated at $37 billion a year.

In an interview, Edward P. Lazear, a labor economist who is the council chairman, gave the example of a construction site with many immigrants working as roofers.

“They might drive down slightly the wages of roofers in the United States,” Mr. Lazear said. “But as a result of having this valuable supply of labor from abroad, other people on the construction project like carpenters and electricians are more productive. They have better people to work with, more people to work with. The cost of doing the job is lower, and some of that is passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices.”

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1. cspan 1 having discussion on this Report right now